The day passed without incident, a fact Blake was quick to relax in as she sat at the desk in RWBY's dormroom studying the text that lay before her, hearing Weiss closing the curtains behind her. She was dimly aware of the heiress sighing and the familiar click as a suitcase was opened. Blake scanned the pages at speed, isolating any useful information and storing it for later use. The book had been lended to her by Ruby, 'A Comprehensive Guide to Grimm'. It was the very same one her leader had been using the night she fell asleep in the library, but with everything going on Blake had only now gotten a chance to read it herself.
It was mostly things she already knew, but there were a few interesting snippets of information that even Blake did not know. She however was far more interested in the lesser known species of Grimm that people seldom see, let alone write about. Of particular interest were the Majors, or 'Megas' as Ruby called them after her first encounter with one. Also called 'Alphas' by most, they have no relation to hierarchies at all, the name only referring to their above average strength and size. Of the 5 species of Grimm that resided in the Emerald Forest, Blake had encountered all but two of them. She somewhat wished to be able to meet an Alpha-Deathstalker, but she knew the chances of that happening were ridiculously slim. And that it would probably be very dangerous.
Her learning time was cut short as usual at a voice from behind her, dragging her attention from her book to her teammate.
"Where's Yang?"
Blake sighed, leaning over the back of the chair to look at Weiss.
"With Ruby no doubt, it wouldn't surprise me if she'd insist on coming back here. She's healing very well."
Weiss nodded in acknowledgement, closing the case and sliding it back under her bed before calmly making her way to the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Blake heard the muffled hiss of a shower running after a minute or two and settled back into her reading, contemplating switching books to unwind on her bed rather than the chair she was currently in. The minutes ticked by quietly, and before Blake knew it the bathroom door opened once again with Weiss back into her usual pristine white clothes. Her beautiful snow coloured hair fell in front of her shoulder, running almost to her knees in length. The damp locks clung to her clothing like vines, sticking to the fabric and refusing to let go.
She placed her uniform neatly at the foot of her bed and reached out to grasp her brush, running it through her hair and easing any tangled fronds that she found out of existance. Blake watched her work, silently admiring the finesse with which Weiss moved. As she continued and her hair began to dry, Blake noticed it naturally began to curve around itself, something Weiss reinforced when she neatly placed her tiara at the base of her ponytail and fixing it in place. In contrast to the lions mane that Yang wore and the messy mop that Ruby had on her head, Weiss was almost sinfully elegant in her appearance, and though Blake was at odds with the girls personality there was no denying her elegance.
"You did what?!"
That elegance was nowhere to be seen as a pair of hands slammed down on the edge of the desk in anger, Weiss's usual icy front replaced by a rage so violent that Blake imagined only Yang could match, her face flushed bright red in a barely-contained fury that she directed at the two sisters sitting at Rubys bed. They were both silent, knowing better than to invoke Weiss's wrath any more than they already had. Yang flinched at every word the heiress spoke while Ruby was doing her best not to break down in tears once again, holding out more for her own sake than anyone else's as she refused to cry twice in one day no matter how much Weiss's words cut through her.
"How blind to the consequences could you possibly be to think that this was a good idea?! Did you really think that pushing a broken bone into place is safe!?" Her stare was almost dangerously sharp, eyes burning with a fire Blake had never seen in her before. Ruby and Yang lowered their heads and shook them slowly in time with one-another, fully accepting the verbal annihilation Weiss was beating them into submission with.
"How much more reckless and careless can you be before something goes drastically wrong and we lose someone for good?!"
Weiss paused, catching herself off guard as her brain caught up with her emotions. Her face transformed within a second from that of outrage to the verge of heartbreak, leaving all three other people completely speechless by the change in her voice that had suddenly evaporated into thin air. They all hung their mouths open in shock, though Blake was fortunate enough have hers hidden behind the pages of her book. Just as well, as soon as Weiss noticed the sisters staring she exploded with an anger that sent Ruby visibly jumping from her bed in fright.
"What were you even thinking? Do you have any idea of how lucky you are?! She could have died!" Weiss threw her hand outwards in a gesture to Ruby, her ire currently directed at Yang. Blake made a split-second decision to brave the storm to set something straight, not wishing to make things any worse than they already were.
"That's not strictly true."
Silence descended immediately after Blake had finished speaking, and she found herself the focus of two horrified stares and a glare so lethally deadly she felt sure that Weiss was planning her murder for even suggesting that she might have been exaggerating. The heiress spoke slowly, her voice filled to the brim with violence.
"What?"
Blake met her piercing gaze head on, slightly unnerved but refusing to show it. She kept her own voice level, hiding her surprise and remote fear behind the facade she often wore.
"Ruby couldn't have died due to the bone being pushed back into place. At worst she would have been disabled for a few months as her muscles and tissue adjusted to the movement. Death isn't possible unless it were rammed with too much force - force that would require more than a human to exert."
"Well, that makes things better, doesn't it? That's just what we want, a paralyzed leader out of commission for months on end during her first year at the best combat school in the world! How stupid of me to overreact over such a minor event, maybe I should just ask for a new team now before you all get yourselves killed!"
Ruby visibly shrunk at Weiss's words, the raging girl too caught up in her rant to consider the effect her scolding was having on her leader. Ruby buried her face into Yangs shoulder as the older sibling held her close, silently thankful that Blake had distracted Weiss even for a moment. She rubbed Ruby's back comfortingly, making a mental note to be sure to set some things straight with Weiss once she had calmed down.
"What we did was stupid." Yang said firmly, drawing the cold blue eyes back to her.
"But that doesn't mean you can rant at us like you're the perfect student." Yang kept her voice hard despite how difficult it was, watching with a mixture of quiet satisfaction and pure terror at the deathly glare she received in return.
"I am not claiming to be the perfect student." Weiss retaliated, fixing her teammate with a facial expression that practically leaked malicious intent. Now Blake really was considering the possibility that Weiss may actually be planning their deaths, such was the way the girl behaved.
"I'm not the one who endangered my teammates life, am I?" Her words caused Yang to break eye contact for a second as she glanced down at Ruby, regret evident in her eyes.
"My sister, no less."
Weiss was speaking sense beneath her angry exterior, Yang knew that. But of all the countless times she had been yelled at before, none of them even came close to matching the effect this one was having on her. Perhaps it was the very real consequences she was actually getting, or maybe it was the fact her sister, the most important thing in her life was on the receiving end and this time it was serious. They weren't children any more, and this was far different to the silly ideas they agreed to do when they were kids. This was real.
Weiss continued berating the two for another twenty minutes, finally giving them relief from her fury as she left the dorm in a fit of anger, too frustrated to stay in the same room with people as careless as they were. Yang gently calmed her sister down over time, eventually getting Ruby to dry her eyes and slowly usher her up the ladder to her bed and sleep, something that Yang was keen to do herself. She finished tucking Ruby in and climbed down, exchanging glances with Blake as she retrieved her pyjamas and headed for the dormroom.
Blake watched the door close and moved her gaze to the bed that held her sleeping leader. She knew that Ruby would take Weiss's words to heart, and while Blake agreed with the majority of Weiss's points she couldn't help but feel the heiress had perhaps been just a little too harsh. It was slightly unnerving to see someone like Weiss completely lose their temper, the cold front belied the fiery rage Blake had witnessed. She had expected Weiss to be angry, but never to this level. She just wished that Yang had listened to her in the first place, as all this could have been avoided if they weren't so eager to fix Rubys injury.
Another far more serious notion crossed Blakes mind as she turned over her thoughts. This evening had severely strained the bond between Weiss, Ruby and Yang, something that Blake knew from experience was never a good thing. She was certain that Yang would want to speak with Weiss alone, but guessed that she would most likely wait until physical violence wasn't a very real possibility. Blake took advantage of the fact she was largely not at fault in Weiss's eyes and coupled it with the assumption that she would be more likely to listen to reason from a rational person rather than a brash protective sister and made up her mind.
She waited for Yang to return, spun a single lie about retrieving some notes she had left in a class and opened the door, slightly surprised for an instant at the person standing before her. Messy blonde hair, black hoodie with a white chestplate that matched his shoulder pads. Tall and awkward, Jaune Arc had his fist raised to knock when the door opened itself.
"Oh, uh, hey Blake. Is Ruby here? I heard she left the infirmary and...well, I wanted to stop by and say hi, is that okay?" He had one arm behind his back, no doubt holding something for Ruby that he was trying to keep a surprise. She fixed him with a blank stare for a few seconds before turning her head to look at Yang, asking a question with her eyes.
'Do you want him in here?'
Yang nodded and Blake stepped aside, sneaking a glance at the object Jaune held in his hand as he moved past her. She silently closed the door behind her, listening to the beginnings of a socially inept conversation in the room she just left. A small smile crept onto her face for a brief moment before she settled her sights on Weiss, taking off down the hallway at a brisk pace with a good idea of where to go.
"She's asleep at the minute, but you can stay for a while if you want." Yang told Jaune happily, doing her best to forget how bad she felt inside. She sat on Blakes bed and motioned for Jaune to take a seat beside her. Normally she would have pointed to the chair by the desk, but right now she knew that as soon as Ruby woke up she would want to speak to her sister and it would be far easier if Jaune was the first thing she saw. She really didn't want a repeat of last time Ruby was surprised in her sleep, it was only Yangs reflexes that prevented her from losing her arm altogether.
"I found this and I thought she'd appreciate it." Jaune said, revealing a single red rose from behind his back. Yang resisted the urge to make any jokes about relationships or to tease him about the implications this might have, instead smiling politely as he explained his reasoning.
"Because her last name is Rose, and I thought. Well, y'know. She'd like roses, since she has that whole rose petal thing when she moves fast and stuff...eehh...it seemed like a good idea at the time..."
Yang fought back a snicker, instead gently taking the flower from Jaunes hand and resting it on the table between the two beds.
"She'll appreciate it, but for future reference: she prefers white roses." She winked, catching him off guard.
"White? W-why? I saw a white one and I was going to go for that to be different but I decided against it because she doesn't wear any white and her petals are red and-"
"It reminds her of her childhood." Yang cut him off simply, deciding not to tell Jaune the real reason Ruby preferred White Roses. He wouldn't understand the significance behind it, and she knew that Ruby would accept his red rose for reasons only she and Yang knew about. No, he didn't need to know at all and as such she attempted to steer the topic elsewhere.
"She'll wake up soon, but until then, I never really got a chance to talk to you." Yang began, watching with delight as Jaune rubbed the back of his neck nervously. The poor boy had even less experience with people than Ruby, let alone anything as close as this.
"Talk to me? How do you mean?" He asked, fidgeting in his seat.
"In general. You're the leader of your own team just like Ruby, betcha did something real special to get there." She inclined her head towards him slightly and winked again, referring to the spectacular decapitation her sister accomplished at the initiation. Jaune stared at the ground and sighed, stopping Yangs next question in its tracks.
"No, not really...I don't know myself why I'm the leader. Nora, Ren and Pyrrha would all make better ones than me."
"Now that's not true!" Yang replied, giving him a playful jab in the shoulder, attempting to distract herself more than anything from the situation she was in. He yelped slightly and rubbed the area, causing a smirk to paint itself on her face.
"It is, you've seen how talented they are!" He pointed with his hand at the floor, still holding his shoulder with the other.
"They are talented." Yang agreed, nodding twice. "But so are you."
"You think so?" Jaune asked, his deep blue eyes twinkling a little more.
"Of course! You may not kick as much ass as they do." She paused at catching his depressed sink and pouted. She wasn't good with moral talks, that was Rubys job. "But without you they wouldn't be the team they are today. They've got you to thank!"
He seemed to brighten up a little after that, and once Yang had adjusted to his awkward mannerisms and frustratingly annoying nervous stuttering she started to learn more about him, though really she was just trying to pass the time until Ruby woke up and she could get some sleep of her own. They talked largely about his relationship with his team and its members, with Yang especially enjoying how embarrassed and uncomfortable he became when she suggested a relationship that went a little further than leader and follower with Pyrrha. Everyone except Jaune could see that she clearly wanted him, and if his reactions were anything to go by he simply refused to believe that someone 'as perfect as her would go for a loser like me', to quote his own words. It was funny to her how hopeless he was.
She quickly reminded him of his winning traits and settled into the evening, content that things had finally calmed down for a while.
Until Weiss returned, that is.